Performance Evaluation of IEEE 802.15.4 CSMA/CA Scheme Adopting a Modified LIB Model

Since the successful release of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, a great convenience is offered to applications in low-power and low-rate wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which almost touch upon all aspects in our surrounding circumstances. For time-critical applications, we use a modified Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism called Linear Increase Backoff (LIB) to enhance the performance of packet delay, but not compromise the metrics of energy efficiency and throughput. An accurate and comprehensive Markov model is used to analyze the characteristics of our LIB scheme predicting packet delay, energy consumption and throughput of unsaturated, unacknowledged IEEE 802.15.4 networks in which the unsaturated state is dependent on the traffic condition rather than the depiction by a predetermined length. Simulation results are consistent with the predictions of this model. We also compare the performance of LIB with that of several mechanisms according to the optimal parameters selected from operating point, and find that packet delay is obviously superior to that of other schemes, while energy efficiency and throughput are superior to others for large number of nodes and high traffic arrivals.